1986 Ford E-350 dually chassis with a step van body and 351W Ford engine (former Fed Ex truck, now semi-retired and used only about 10 weekends are year to haul tailgating supplies). She runs fine for a while, then just stalls and won't start again. Battery cranks like a champ. If you leave her sitting for an hour or five, she'll crank right up, drive fine for a few miles and then die again. The problem has gotten worse over the last few months. She used to stall and start right back up. Now when she stalls, there's no telling when she'll start again. Yesterday she conked out three times on the 10-15 mile drive home. Took and hour to get her again each time. Finally had her towed the last few miles. She started right up this AM. Fuel or fire, right? Fuel pump? Fuel filter? Distrubutor? Cap? Spark plugs? Wires? Where should I start? The tow guy said to check the coil? I'm not even sure what that does. I'll be Googling that while you guys chime in. Gotta have a fix this week. Then again, maybe she's just as distraught over the Texans as I am. No fix for that in sight. Bernard
When it stalls and won't start, pull the coil wire (the one that plugs into the middle of the distributor) and hold it close to a ground point while someone else cranks the engine to see if you have spark. You may have to pull back the boot to expose the metal connector. If there's no spark it could very well be the coil. If you get spark, pull some spark plug wires and try the same thing. If you get spark, then ignition probably isn't the problem. If you don't get spark at the plug wires it's probably the rotor and/or distributor cap.
Yeah- check to see if you are getting spark first because that's easy. Then I might check the wiring to the fuel pump to make sure it's not cracked or damaged. You may be getting fueld for a minute and then the wire may be not making the connection and then the fuel runs out. Seems like if it were your spark plug wires it would run rough, unless it's the main wire to the distributor. Is it a carb or fuel injected ingine? If Carb next tiem it stalld opo off the air fuilter and see if gas is being sprayed intot he carb. Could be the fueld filter as well by I woudl bet on an electrical issue, either the wire to the distributor, or the wiring to the fuel pump having a crack or damage to the line.
Not expert on Fords, but obviously something gets hot, then fails, then cools down and works again. The ignitor is something that does this. The other things probably are less temperature dependent.
Good stuff so far. Thanks. It's a carborated engine. I talked one crotchety old independent mechanic today who gave me a long, condencending lecture about vehicle maintenance. Then he rambled on about a bunch of mumbo jumbo before saying the fuel pump was the place to start. Every time he started discussing a new part of the truck, he prefaced it with, "I don't what kind of idiots design this stuff". Kinds funny actually. My next stop was a larger shop that's owned by a Asian guy. He seemed a little more on top of his game. He said there's an 80% chance it's the engine computer module. He said a new one is about $80. Could be something else though. He seemed like was very capable of figuring out the problem, but at what cost? I haven't decided on a course of action yet. Bernard
Bernard, I'm going to guess that this is a bad ignition coil, possibly caused by a bad voltage regulator.
I re-read the original post and see that it only gets used a few times a year to go to tailgates. It is obvious some aggy threw a condom in your gas tank, and it floats around and covers the gas pick-up for the fuel pump. We used to drive this Ford cab-over truck to Mexico for car races, with a race car in the back. The truck sat a lot of the time. It conked out about half way to Monterrey, so the owner suggested the gas tanks were rusty, and junk got in the carburetor. We took it off, blew it out and put it back on, started and ran. He put new fuel filters on. Next trip, same thing, around the same place. We did the same thing, and it ran again, coming back, same thing. Finally I was looking at the radiator and there was a little device about three inches long with two pipes coming out of it, connected to nothing. I asked what that was, and the owner thought it was a transmission cooler that wasn't connected any more. It finally dawned on us that the truck conked out when it was very hot out in the desert, and that part was an old fuel cooler. You actually ran the fuel hoses through that cooler, and it would not vapor lock. We did that and never had that problem again. So the vapor lock suggestion is not totally off the wall. That means the fuel is actully boiling inside the lines or in the carburetor. We thought we were fixing something, but it just cooled down enough to work right. Old gas contributes to this. You could drain your gas and put some premium in there.
So all I need to fix it is a cold front? Sweet. Ha. Ha. You joke about the condom. The old mechanic above told me with a straight face that someone may have put a sock in the gas tank. He said mechanics do that stuff as soon as they know a truck is out of warranty so the owner will bring it back for more repairs. I told him there are two gas tanks and switching from one to the other doesn't help. He said those electonic fuel tank switches are pieces of ****. I told him it was a mecahnical switch which he said was bulletproof. Bernard
I've had quite a few old fords...vapor locking does happen to them. I'll bet you lunch that's the source of your problem.
I'd go with the computer module, typically its mounted on the fender well, kind of a square aluminum looking thing that has wires running out of it. We used to pour cold water on it when the vehicle died to confirm that was the problem. Good Luck
LPDog good call on the ignition module being the most likely culprit considering the circumstances. The location of the module may vary however. In my old 84 F150 the module was actually attached to the side of the bottom of the distributor. It too was carbeurated.
Yes, that's what I said to begin with-if you want to try something, change the igniter, Ford may call it the electronic ignition module, or some similar term. The coil is more likely to fail and not work again, than cool off and work properly.
OK. Here's the plan. I bought a new coil ($16) and new fuel filter ($5?) at Auto Zone last night. Today I'm going to pick up a new ignition module ($41 blue grommet or $23 yellow grommet) as soon as I figure out which one I need. I have a friend that used to be a mechanic that says he can swap out the parts. We were going to do it this morning, but we rescheduled due to rain. I hope it's not vapor lock. Bernard
Also, I know I'm I'm skipping over the step of diagnosing a bad coil. My implusive nature says just start buying parts and swapping them out and see what happens. Perhaps a waste of money, but who cares. I gotta get this thing fixed. On the other hand money is an issue or else I'd just have this thing at the mechanics shop right now. Of course extra parts are cheaper than shop labor at $80/hour. Who the hell knows? Bernard
It's fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least I think it's fixed. While my buddy was installing the coil ($16), he looked at the distributor cap ($16) and rotor ($3) and said both were very worn and needed replacing. On my way to meet him, I picked up both parts. With all three in place, she still wouldn't start. Further investigation revealed no spark. I went back to AutoZone and picked up the blue grommet ignition module ($23). Part Link After a five minute installation, she fired right up and was running like a champ. The module mounted right on the firewall and it held in place by three screws easily reached from inside the cab. Props to this thread for pointing me in the right direction. Y'all freakin' rule!!! Bernard
that sounds like a sweeeett tailgate rig. have you considered grabbing a spare module and tossing it in the glove box?
That's a good idea, cheap insurance in the event some other problem is causing the ignition module to go bad. Here's a photo of her arriving at the Yellow Lot and preparing to unload her cargo of tents, flagpoles, ice chests, grills, stereo, TV, couch, chairs, etc. We're on a roll here... Anyone want to take a shot a telling me why the fuel guage has never worked (on either tank) since I bought her in 2003? Bernard
There may only be a fuel gauge sending unit in one of the tanks. Do you have an owner's manual? It may tell you that. Then find the wire that goes to the sending unit, pull it off and ground it. If the gauge goes up to full, the wiring and the gauge are good. Replace the sending unit in the tank. If nothing happens, check the fuse, then get a new or used gas gauge or instrument cluster from a salvage yard, sometimes they aren't too expensive. This might be an easy repair or not, don't know on your Ford. Sometimes you have to take parts, i.e. the gas gauge off the used instrument cluster and replace it on your existing instrument cluster. After a certain year, there will be a printed circut on the back of the instrument cluster, and it can be difficult to take it all apart without messing something else up in the process. These are the things you might run into. Some models have the sending unit in the tank be a part of the fuel pump, so you can't replace just the sending unit, another fun surprise.
Bernard, there are only three things wrong with that picture. 1. It's not in Burnt Orange with Texas Longhorns emblems. 2. It's not pulling a smoker. 3. It's not in my driveway.
